Anaconda out of business?

I was looking through my list of ebay sellers when I found that it looks like Heritage is/was selling the stock, and business of Anaconda Rare Coins!

http://www.anacondararecoins.com/

Anyone have the low down on why the guys sold it??

Speedy

 

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Speedy,

As a very loyal customer of Anaconda over the years, I will give you the information that I have. The owner of the company, Adrian Crane decided to retire (Costa Rica I heard) and he is liquidating the company's assets. Brandon Kelley has been operating the company and he is handling the liquidation process. A significant portion of the company's assets were auctioned off in the FUN sale through Heritage in June.

The remainder of their inventory and assets were supposed to be auctioned off last month in a no reserve sale on E-bay, but the sale has been postponed twice. I have no idea when they actually plan on completing the sale.

Either way, I will miss Anaconda very much as they were a fantastic retailer of rainbow toned coins.

 

Thanks for the info!!
While I had never bought any coins from him, I always enjoyed looking at their photos.

Speedy

 

Yes... a sad day indeed. Yes, I too heard Adrian is Costa Rica bound. I never met him, but Brandon is 100% class act. We'll miss him. I suspect we will see him again.

 

I talked to Brandon at a show, he has big plans he cannot announce. He did not tell me what they were, but " big plans" was all. This was in March, so we are all still waiting.

 

My guess is that because of their specialized inventory, especially the toned coins which sell at premiums to the price guides, it would have been difficult to get a prospective buyer that was willing to purchase the entire inventory outright at a price that Adrian was willing to accept. Given the company's reputation and Brandon's photographic expertise, they probably could realize better prices by auctioning off the inventory.

There are many coins that did not find their way into the FUN auction and I really hope that they do auction off their remaining inventory. I check the Anaconda website daily for information, but have not seen anything new in weeks. My hope is to find this coin in auction.

 

thanks for pointing it out. i will make every effort to buy it

 

I doubt it since you just responded to my intro post saying you don't like toned coins. However, I am worried about the other toned coin junkies like me who are just waiting for this coin to hit the market.

 

it was a joke read

 

Welcome to the forum !!!

The only problem, all those coins were on the market for a long time. It was the premium that kept them in the inventory so long. If you have been watching, and I am sure you have, they did not even come close to Anaconda price when up for auction.

Maybe thats why they are holding back......they are getting hammered $$$ wise now

 

finally for some cheap coins

 

Anaconda specialized in buying toned coins at auction for conservative prices and then selling them for huge markups on their website due to Brandon's photographic skills. Most of Anaconda's inventory came from the major auction houses (Heritage etc.) and although the prices they got at the FUN sale were no where near their advertised prices, they probably got their initial investment back. They were able to do this because the major auction houses are terrible when it comes to photographing toned coins and Brandon is about the best there is in the business.

That doesn't mean they didn't lose money on any particular coin. There was an 1892 IHC NGC MS65 RD that they bought at the FEB Long Beach sale for $805 and listed on their site for $1,000 that sold for $575 at the FUN sale. However, I believe in this particular case the coin was actually RB instead of RD and everyone bidding must have been looking at the coin and not the holder.

Honestly, I have no idea what criteria they used to decide which coins they would auction in the FUN sale. The sold almost all of their untoned inventory and some of their toned inventory including the bulk of their monster toned commems and maybe half of their Morgans. But that leaves many toned proof IHC's and a lot of Morgans they did not consign to the FUN sale.

 

did you see the prices that guy charged? I like toned coins but not at 5-10x their "untoned" value. No wonder they tanked

 

I am not sure I would classify a guy who retired and sold his business as "tanking", but either way, 5-10X bid is completely normal for a common date choice BU monster toned Morgan Dollar. In fact, I have seen them sell for 20-30X bid on occasion.

 

Unless something changed they were going to sell the rights to use the Anaconda name.

 

Wasn't that the IHC that was going around the PCGS forum in the Photo Contest?? I just have seen pic's of it so I could be way off....

Speedy

 

Do you know if he even made any money in the coin business?

 

lol

 

No I do not know, and I think that is a completely inappropriate question to ask a dealer, so I will not ask Brandon. However, your tone seems to indicate that you have information that would affirm that Anaconda lost money in the coin business. If that is the case, please share this info with the rest of us.

As far as Adrian's retirement, I would guess that his coin business was not his major source of income and that the performance of Anaconda had very little to do with his personal decision to retire. Again, that is a guess not based on facts.